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Thursday, April 21, 2011

Officials: Zetas go on rampage in Miguel Aleman

A convoy of armed gunmen allegedly belonging to the Zetas attacked the city Thursday shooting at, vandalizing and torching the headquarters of the Tamaulipas State Police, the local transit police headquarters and nearly a dozen buildings, authorities said. The attack left one civilian and several gunmen dead. Miguel Aleman is across the Rio Grande from Roma.

According to the information released by the Mexican Army, a firefight with gunmen resulted in the death of one gunmen and the arrest of 11 more. They also reported one soldier dead.

Also on Thursday, the body count found in mass graves in rural San Fernando rose to 177. The Zetas are accused of killing those bodies and placing them several mass graves, the most recent of which was discovered Tuesday.

The attack began about 5:15 a.m. Thursday and continued until 7:30 a.m., when the Mexican military was able to run the gunmen out of town, said a law enforcement official who asked not to be named for security reasons.

The Mexican Military issued a news release that doesn’t mention the dead civilian or the other gunmen reported by the law enforcement official.

One of the groups stayed in Miguel Aleman and fought with the military while the other went toward Ciudad Mier. As a result of the firefight, the Mexican army reported seizing 20 assault rifles, eight grenades, more than 300 magazines and more than 7,600 ammunition rounds.

According to the 8th Military Zone in Reynosa, the Zetas also attacked a military patrol along the Riberena highway prior to the attack in Miguel Aleman which prompted the mobilization of army troops toward the area.

Also prior to the arrival of the military, when Zetas arrived in town, they began shooting at the law enforcement headquarters and shot at the buildings and patrol cars as well as causing other damage, the Mexican law enforcement official stated.

The group then went around town shooting at and setting fire to a number of high-profile buildings along the city’s main avenue, including the Ford and Nissan dealerships, an Auto Zone store, a Stripes convenience store, a large furniture store and a used car lot.

During the rampage, one employee of the local Coca-Cola Co. bottling plant was killed as he drove to work. His name was not released pending notification of next of kin, the law enforcement official said. When military forces arrived toward the end of the rampage, a shootout ensued.

In the San Fernando case, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office announced the arrest of another San Fernando municipal police officer who is described as being part of the group of police officers who provided protection to the Zetas during the time that the massacres took place. Officer Joel Reséndiz Moreno was presented Thursday afternoon by the PGR as the agemcu asked for the public’s help in coming forward and filing charges against him in connection with the case. He is the 17th officer to be arrested in connection with the case.

The Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office—PGJE, said Thursday that the first mass graves were discovered April 1, and authorities have continued to find more since. The most recent grave site was found Tuesday when authorities found three graves with six additional bodies.

Of the 177 bodies, 122 can be related to the investigation into a string of hijacked buses last month, according to a PGJE news release.

The other 55 bodies have been buried for a longer time and are not related to the investigation, the PGJE said.

The agency also said that as of Wednesday 345 individuals have appeared to look for missing relatives, 237 of those have filed complaints into the disappearance of a loved one and 280 have provided with DNA samples for investigation purposes.

What do you mean "the army arrived towards the end of the rampage" they didn't arrive towards the end. THEY ENDED IT. If it wasent for the army arriving these criminal scum would have kept going for hours.

One would think with all bad press on these guys lately, someone in charge would say "guys we got alot of heat on us at the moment and maybe we shouldnt do dumb shit that does absolutely nothing but put more heat on us"...these guys dont fail to amaze me with their stupidity. It seems like making money has taken a back seat next to terrorizing people for the hell of it.

First of all, who really knows what Cartel is responsible? It's easy to say "oh it was the Zetas." In reality, it matters little which Cartel it was because they are all the same. If you think the CDG is any better then the Zetas, you know very little about what's going on.

Second, these marauders are nothing more then very low level street criminals, who in the eyes of the Cartel leaders, are very much expandable and easily replaceable. They care very little about human life or the human condition, on drugs and armed to the teeth they carry out their deeds with impunity. There is no sound logic to their actions.

As I understand it soldiers from Laredo loyal to the Zetas cleared the way for them to enter Miguel Aleman without having to fight the CDG. The Zetas heated up the plaza to scare locals/local businesses into complying with them and to draw out the CDG to fight the soldiers they had prepared for them. CDG did come to defend their plaza and fought the military/Zetas on the highway killing one soldier and possibly losing a man after which it seems CDG returned to Cd Mier and the Zetas remained in Miguel Aleman. The Zetas were quite literally pillaging Miguel Aleman for 3 hours before the firefight, with the military 15 minutes away, waiting for the CDG to come out and fight.

Miguel Aleman is a stepping stone into Nuevo Laredo and when the CDG assault comes on Laredo, after Nuevo Leon has been sufficiently weakened to prevent the Zetas from getting reinforcements from Monterrey, or basing out of Nuevo Leon, they'll probably want to base out of the Miguel Aleman area as they enter the city.

The average person's opinion of the Zetas couldn't possibly get any lower, they've killed hundreds of migrants for seemingly no reason, so I don't think snatching the Miguel Aleman plaza in this way is such a bad move for the Zetas. It gives them a little breathing room and a buffer zone before CDG can enter Laredo.

The entire reason for CDG's Nuevo Leon campaign is to weaken their grip on Nuevo Laredo. Laredo has always been the price. The Laredo-Nuevo Laredo border crossing is one of the busiest trade borders with the US averaging 8500 trucks per day and is the center of Zeta drug smuggling activities(I think they still count as a DTO). Taking Nuevo Laredo from the Zetas would be a significant blow to their income, and a significant boost to CDG's. With 8500 trucks crossing daily it's not hard to smuggle some coke across. Everything the CDG is doing in NL is to erode the support network for the Zetas in Laredo.

There's been some talk that the CDG isn't making headway in NL, I think the STRATFOR report stated something like that. The thing is they don't have to kill all the Zetas in NL and completely dominate the plaza to create a difficult situation for the Zetas in Laredo. Already the Laredo Zetas are in a very exposed position, there's been a great increase in difficulty moving drugs through NL to Laredo due to increased police activity as a result of all the violence. Less income for an already broke organization. The Zetas' freedom of movement in NL is severely limited, again from increased police activity and because they're scared the CDG will get them. Their morale is very low, they've seen so many of their friends get butchered by the CDG or shot up by the military, so many mid level leaders have been killed or captured that cocaine is probably the only thing keeping most of them going at this point. We're getting close to the point that the NL Zetas would rather abandon the organization and run than go out and fight the CDG. Already they're in no position to support anyone or breath life into the defence of anything.

I think as soon has CDG has managed to untangle themselves from the NL situation the assault on Laredo will begin, maybe sometimes this summer or fall, possibly with the help of Lazcano and other deserting Zetas should the rumors about a possible deal between him and sr. XX turn out to be true. This attack, though a nice try, is probably pretty inconsequential, almost an act of desperation. CDG will take the plaza back easily, the Zetas can never hold it. They were probably hoping CDG would do as badly as they do fighting the soldiers.

I'm predicting a largely southern based Zeta organization by the end of this year, and of course, Chapo will backstab CDG and LFM.

see, I like posts like that. Informed, concise, practical, informative, and maybe some of it is guess work, and maybe somethings go the other way, but it's a good basis for discussion and insight, not just tired arguments for tired issues. Thanks for the info.

I agree, I think Zeta's are loosing control and influence in these areas, and are lower then we think. Although, I have read they are pretty entrenched in Nuevo Laredo.